The fans have spoken.
Since this particular poll went live on March 27th, 718 of you have shared your opinion. The results? Just 7% of you have said you think they are doing a good job. The other 665 of you said no. This chart shows the raw number of votes in each direction on each day since polling began.
For the 53 of you who said you support Twins ownership over the last three weeks, I have some questions. (For instance: What’s your last name? Because I have one very specific guess.) For the rest of you, I have some thoughts on potential reasons why. Now, I’m going to run through a far-from-exhaustive list of the actions they have taken that I suspect have rubbed you the wrong way, and led to you giving a thumbs-down.
“Right-Sizing the Payroll”
In 2023, the Minnesota Twins broke their 19-year, 0-18 playoff curse. They beat the Blue Jays in four games and advanced to the ALDS. They won one of their games against the Astros in the ALDS, too. Shortly thereafter, though, ownership threw a large bucket of cold water all over the excitement of fans, announcing that it was time to “right-size” the payroll. While the stated reasons were tied to declining TV revenue and the collapse of the RSN model, it was still a gut punch of epic proportions. I suspect some fans immediately lost interest at that point.
Failing to provide an appropriate budget
This is an easy gripe to make, and it generally applies to every year other than 2023. The Twin Cities are the 15th-largest media market in the country.
In 2024, they had the 20th-largest payroll, despite being in a clear window of contention. Failing to spend at the deadline last season almost certainly cost the Twins a playoff berth, and cost the team some fans in the process. Coming into 2025, the Pohlads had an opportunity to compensate for the tough finish. Instead, the sense for most of the offseason was that the Twins would need to shed one or more contracts in order to add anyone of note. Just three weeks into the season, it’s painfully apparent that one more big bat could have made a difference in the standings.
Most fans aren’t asking for a top-10 budget. Getting to 15th—commensurate with their market size—would net the Twins an additional $20 million to spend. That would have been the difference between Mickey Gasper being on the roster, and signing (say) Pete Alonso, or trading for Dylan Cease.
Creating leveraged debt, mortgaging the Twins’ future
Remember when the Pohlads were presumed to be close to selling the team to Justin Ishbia, the league did their diligence, and when it came time to looking at the books, he backed out?
Remember when details dropped a couple days later that the Twins have at least $425 million in debt accumulated over the past few years, despite the fact that the Twins receive roughly enough to cover payroll through TV, revenue sharing, and national media deals?
Yeah. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the Pohlads have borrowed liberally against the team to gain cash to fund their other (money-losing) enterprises. As a result, their asking price is higher than their valuation, according to Forbes. How much more difficult will that make it to sell the team? How likely is it that a purchaser will be willing to absorb that level of debt? And how likely is it that if they can’t find a buyer who will overpay, they will instead cry poor and fail to give the front office a payroll that’s workable, especially when more players hit their second and third years of arbitration? Yikes.
Prioritizing profits over allowing fans to watch games
This is another biggie. Do you know the two best ways to grow a fanbase? First, win. Second, make it easy to watch games. Turns out, when you don’t do either, you just push your fans away. Going into the 2024 season, the Twins and Bally had broken up. The Twins were committed to making games accessible to fans, to the point that brand new TV play-by-play man Cory Provus went on record saying there would be no more blackouts
Just a few short months later, the Twins were back on Bally (with blackouts), and there was a carriage dispute with many TV providers that further limited access. Now, this may have been directly under Dave St. Peter’s purview, but the bottom-line focus (at the very least) was directed by the Pohlads. Does it really seem like a good idea to re-up with a bankrupt entity that you already know has done you dirty? Probably not.
Bonus: trying to contract the franchise
Yeah, I know I said I was talking about recent things. You know what, though? This one still cuts deep for me, even though it was over 20 years ago. Sports teams are something that inspire such passion, such loyalty, that trying to get rid of a team to pocket a few bucks is just Cruella de Vil-level profiteering and villainy. I wouldn’t be shocked if this still looms large for many. Some argue that the apparent flirtation with contraction was just a ploy to secure other concessions, and perhaps to shake loose some money at the state and municipal level to build Target Field. Even if it’s true, though, that really doesn’t make them seem less cartoonishly callous. Playing chicken with a public good of which you are steward as much as true owner is almost as gross as trying to actually destroy it.
It’s undeniable that some combination of these factors have led to declining team interest, and attendance as well.
I mentioned above that this list is far from exhaustive, and it is. But now, I want to hear from you. Which of these have most demoralized you? Or is there a big topic that I’m missing? Join the discussion below, and let’s commiserate together. To the 7%: I want to hear from you too! What is everyone else missing?
